


that I could just understand the meaning of the word

by whendocloudssleep



Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, post 3x23
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 04:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1331722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whendocloudssleep/pseuds/whendocloudssleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When Allison wakes, it’s with a giant gasp.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>set post 3x23, so major spoilers for that episode.</p>
            </blockquote>





	that I could just understand the meaning of the word

**Author's Note:**

> this was written super quickly after the episode aired, so that's why any mistakes that are there are there.
> 
> and no but seriously, this whole thing is a major spoiler so tread lightly.

When Allison wakes, it's with a giant gasp. A memory of dying, and Scott, and the feeling that maybe she should have held on a moment longer, should have listened to her dad when she called him.

It doesn't matter now though.

She's obviously dead.

She takes a deep breath, because somehow she can do that, and water rushes into her lungs. It's not painful, but it's cold, uncomfortable where it pours into her chest. Instinct and muscle memory has her jolting upright, hands gripping for the sides of a tub that she knows is there.

She opens her eyes and the room is too bright, and too dim, and somehow the Vet's office and the White Room combined.

She breathes out and water pours from her mouth, another breath in and air fills up that space. She's still confused about how she's supposed to deal with this.

She's breathing water. She's in a place that both does and doesn't seem to exist, and her last memory is of nothing. Not the intensity of pain, or the warmth that she usually feels- felt- around Scott.

"Hello," She hears and Allison's head jerks, rushing to look around her. Her father would be disappointed in her, she didn't even notice that she wasn't alone.

She braces for some kind of attack, to many months needing to always be ready for someone to jump out at you.

She almost slides back into the water at her shock at who she sees.

"Mom?"

Victoria Argent smiles at her daughter, holds her arms out a bit and Allison can't not rush to her. 

She's missed her mother so much. She'd never gotten to say goodbye, never been given the chance to accept her mom. It's wonderful that's she's going to get that chance now. Allison doesn't want to focus on how she was only seventeen, on how she won't be able to talk to her father for a while, but will probably see him sooner than he deserves, how she left Lydia and Scott and Isaac and Stiles to handle the mess that she'd helped to create.

Instead she focuses on her mom, on how she smells just like the perfume that had lingered in their house for weeks, on how her arms hold Allison so tightly that she struggles to breathe though neither of them let go.

-

Allison spends too long and not long enough just spending time with her mother. She learns that they're in an actual place, though it bends to most of their will, they eat and watch an endless loop of movies that Allison has never seen before and would probably have to watch again to understand. 

She spends most of that time at the beginning just curled up with her mom, hugging her and crying and missing her father.

That's when Victoria shows her that they can watch people, watch people who are still alive. They watch Chris for just moments, see him consumed in intense grief before they stop watching, switching back to their movies.

-

Allison asks about Kate once, and her mom has to explain that sometimes there are difficult "cases". Kate had done some very bad things, and didn't generally feel guilty or remorseful for them, so she's in a kind of holding cell.  
They can still visit her though, and Victoria says that she'll fill out the paperwork for Allison to go and see her. Allison says no, maybe some other time, and doesn't let herself ask about anyone else.

She'll figure this out as she goes.

-

After a few days her mother wants her to get out of the house, and it's strange that she has a house to get out of. She's dead. Houses aren't usually what come to mind first.

But Victoria says that there's a great ice cream place not that far away that she should check out, and who knows, she might find someone her age to pal around with.

(She sounds kind of sad saying that last part, and Allison doesn't let herself think about her mom seeing teenagers around wherever this place is, and watching Allison and thinking that she might be there soon.)

She gets to the ice cream place, orders the biggest scoop that she can fit on her ice cream cone, and goes to sit on the bench outside.

It's warm and sunny, and she feels sad but there's mainly just calm.

She thinks about checking on Scott, or her dad, Isaac, or maybe to make sure that Stiles is still alive, but she feels like doing that alone would just make her feel worse so instead she eats slowly, and lets her ice cream drip onto her fingers.

-

She doesn't pay any attention to the people that head in and out of the ice cream shop. There's never any swarm of people and while a man sits at one of the tables inside, some game open on his laptop in front of him, as he tries to eat and play at the same time, there's never anyone else really sitting in there.

That's why it's a surprise when two people head out of the door, and come and stand in front of her.

She's down to the last of her cone, when one of them holds another out to her. Allison had been full to the brim just a minute ago, but now she's not, now she's ready for that ice cream.

She looks up as she reaches for it, trusting that wherever they are, she can't die of poison or razor blades hidden away in the cool treat.

When she sees who's holding the cone out to her, she loses her tenative grip on it, and it goes falling to the sidewalk, splattering onto her shoes and ankles.

"I told you we shouldn't have surprised her." Boyd, who is holding two cones in his hand, holds one of them out to Allison. She takes it this time and makes sure that she has a good grip on it. "We should have said something and gotten her attention. That's perfectly good ice cream all over the pavement."

Erica's grinning up at him, hair messily piled onto the top of her head, less make-up around her eyes. She seems more comfortable with who she is now, some mixture of who she was both before and after the bite. "You're probably right, but this was so much funnier. Her face! She'd looked like she'd seen a ghost!"

"She kind of did. She hasn't been here as long as we have." Erica ignores what Boyd's saying, sitting down on the bench next to Allison, licking her ice cream.

Allison was never all that close to Erica or Boyd, was never really friends with either of them, but she finds that it's really nice to see more people that she knows. Even if they are dead.

Because she's dead too now.

That's never going to not be a shock.  
-

Once they finish their ice creams, they head to a nearby park. They've been talking about what's been happening between when they each died.

Erica's learned how to drive, and Boyd has learned that it's no longer a necessity to stay inside when she's behind the wheel of a car. They were happy for Isaac to get away from Derek's emotional abuse, and they think Kira's adorable.

"I honestly thought we'd be seeing Stiles next though, not you." Erica's as blunt as ever, and it makes Boyd say her name in a disapproving way.

"No. No, it's fine. He is looking pretty rough." Allison is sure that any time now he's going to come bounding up out of nowhere, having reconnected with his mom, and still worrying endlessly about Scott.

They make it to the park, and there is a group of moderately young people around. Everyone seems to perk up when they see Boyd and Erica, and when they catch sight of Allison they seem stoked to have even teams again finally.

"What do they mean even teams?" Allison's leaning closely to Boyd and Erica, head peeking between their shoulders from where she'd fallen behind then when they'd joined the group.

Boyd explains that they play cheesy sports sometimes, and that they'd been uneven for ages since Jesse decided he was taking a break. "We play football and soccer, lacrosse and even baseball sometimes."

Allison decides that maybe this could be good for her, and her mom had told her to meet new people. "Okay. I'm in. What are we playing today?"

Erica laughs and grab's at Allison's arm pulling her towards where there's a group of teenagers in a mostly single file line. There's a kid with a red rubber ball a short ways away from her, and Erica deposits her at the front of the line. "We're actually playing kickball today. It's nice to have a nostalgia kick sometimes." Allison has only been hanging around the other two teens for about an hour, but she's pretty sure she can feel Boyd rolling his eyes at Erica from halfway across the playing area. 

When she looks around the grassy area of the park, Allison can see where there are a few moderately sized mats placed as the bases, and she feels about 10 years old again, playing this in gym class. It's freeing. She can see why they're playing.

The roller calls out, asking if she's ready. She nods, and before Allison knows it she's kicked the ball.

She pauses for a moment to watch it soar probably farther than she should have probably kicked it, but they Erica's pushing at her shoulder blades, yelling at her to go! go! go! and all she can do is take off. Running to first, and continuing to second as laughter bubbles out of her chest.  
She finally stops on third because she doesn't want to be back at home base yet, doesn't want this light feeling to go away.

Allison thinks that she could get used to this happy feeling.


End file.
